I have blogged before about the Obi tournaments that we run every so often. These are held on the same days as internal club gradings so it is a good way of getting everyone there.

The emphasis is on FUN which matches up quite nicely with FUNdamentals as specified in the BJA Long Term Athlete Development plan (LTAD). Although some material I have refers to that with ‘Player’ (LTPD) instead, so it remains to be seen what the correct version is this week.

FUNdamentals – (male 6-10, female 6-10 years) this stage should be structured and FUN with the emphasis on developing basic movement literacy and fundamental movement skills.

Some hold the view that this age is too young for any form of competition, be it events like ours or the ‘Mini Mon’ events which are held around the UK. My view is that it depends entirely on context. What is the event for and why are players at the event?

Players at the Obi events gain points win or lose (which go towards grading up their ‘Obi man’ figure). The crowd atmosphere is geared up to support both players. Those that may have had a bad run of luck will find themselves facing a Senior Dan grade in their final contest, where their luck tends to reverse, of course

Perhaps the most memorable thing of the last event was a girl who was unfortunately in tears at the beginning due to nerves and so on. But by the end of the day, having watched her friends and had a go herself, she was practically bouncing onto the mat for her third contest. A complete turnaround and that right there is a good example of the spirit of judo shining through.

It is also not just about the players. This time around I had several players from the club who were having a go at refereeing for the first time, so we managed to run a proper team. They certainly got to see that it was not as easy as it looks. This is a perfect sort of event to give it a go though: Friendly atmosphere, all fun.

Naturally, it is still important to get the results right, and one of the main things I had to drill in was correct application of the ‘Majority of 3′ ruling. A couple of times the other members of my team disagreed with my score, but the referee sided with me just because, well, I was the senior referee. I had to call a stop to point out that it doesn’t matter: If I am over-ruled 2 to 1, I am over-ruled, full stop.

Even better, at least one of those helping out wants to go on to do the proper course and subsequent exam.

The correct, supportive environment is a boon to any aspect of judo: Training, competing, officialdom and I’m sure many more.